Air this Pain and Alter It: What Can Poetry Do?
Thu, Nov 2, 2017
7:00 PM–8:30 PM
Proshansky Auditorium
![](https://centerforthehumanities.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/11.02.17_Air-This-Pain-and-Alter-It_-readers-faces-image.jpg)
This event is being livestreamed. Click here to watch the livestream.
In an interview for Black Women Writers at Work, Audre Lorde spoke of her mother’s special relationship to language, “Words had an energy and power, and I came to respect that power early . . . . If we feel deeply, and we encourage ourselves and others to feel deeply, we will find the germ of our answers to bring about change…. If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it.”
The Poetry Society of America’s 2017/2018 National Series will address in the voices of a wide range of contemporary poets and writers the unique power of writing to inspire courage, effect change, and speak to the moment, however challenging it is. Featured writers include Eduardo Corral, Nick Flynn, Kimiko Hahn, Bob Hicok, Jane Hirshfield, Tyehimba Jess, Gregory Pardlo, Francine Prose, and Jacqueline Woodson.
Sponsored by Poetry Society of America, with support from the Ford Foundation. Co-sponsored by Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative.
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